Oil Tanker and Container Ship Collide in the North Sea

An oil tanker and a container ship collided off the northeastern coast of England, according to emergency responders, who scrambled to the scene on Monday morning. Initial images shared by the BBC showed fire and thick black smoke rising from the ships.

The British coast guard said it was “coordinating the emergency response to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel off the coast of East Yorkshire,” and that an alarm was first raised at 9:48 a.m. local time.

Rescue helicopters were in the area, and lifeboats were deployed from a number of stations along the coast, as well as vessels with “firefighting capability,” the coast guard said in a statement.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity that coordinates lifeboats around the British coast, said there were reports “that a number of people had abandoned the vessels following a collision and there were fires on both ships.”

Information from Marine Traffic, a website that tracks vessels, appeared to show the Stena Immaculate, a U.S. flagged oil tanker, and the Solong, a container ship sailing under the Portuguese flag, on an intersecting route surrounded by emergency response vessels just off the coast of the mouth of the River Humber, near Hull.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.